Announcement of the nominees for Pressalit's Keep Living Award

Every year, Pressalit gives away the Pressalit Keep Living Award, which is given to the Parasport’s Athlete of the year. The award is given to one out of five nominees. These nominees consist of para athletes that have achieved extraordinary results the past year. Along with the honour of the title Parasports Athlete of the year comes 20,000 DKK.

Keep Living is the quintessence of Pressalit Care’s philosophy. Pressalit Care’s basic position is that everyone should be able to have a good life regardless of their physical abilities. Thus, Pressalit wants to reward the incredible para athletes that realize their full potential in spite of physical limitations. Keep Living is Pressalit Care’s mantra as we aim for our products to help people being independent and live their lives to the fullest.

The nominees this year are:

Daniel Wagner, para athletics

Since 2012, Daniel Wagner has continuously been at the top of international para athletics, but the World Championship gold medal has been missing in his collection. Nonetheless, Daniel managed to jump his way onto the top of the World Championship podium at the incredible World Championship in London. The Dane finally won his gold medal in long jump and at the same time, he set a new world record with 6.5 meters. Wagner also won a silver medal at 100 meter running at the World Championship.

Susanne Sunesen, para dressage

The experienced Susanne Sunesen and Que Faire continue to perform at the highest international level. At the European Championships in para dressage in Göteborg, the duo won gold medals in kür (freestyle) with a distinguished score at 77.125%. Thus, they contributed to Denmark winning silver in the team competition.

Stinna Tange Kaastrup, para dressage

The sensation from Rio followed up on last year’s big breakthrough with a sovereign performance at the European Championships at para dressage, where she earned three whole medals. Stinna Tange and Smarties started out by winning a bronze medal in the individual test. The day after, she was part of the team that won a silver medal. Most impressing was the performance on the third day, where the Dane rode kür with 77-060% and won a gold medal.

Lisa Kjær Gjessing, para taekwondo

Since her para taekwondo debut in 2013, Lisa Gjessing has won all the championships she has participated in. She acquired her career’s fourth World Championship gold medal in October after another convincing performance, where the 39-year-old Dane again proved that she is in another league. In the finale, Lisa defeated the number 1 champion, according to the world ranking 34-9.

Cathrine Rosengren, para badminton

The European champion Cathrine Rosengren won a bronze medal in 2017 at her first World Championship after a close defeat in the semifinal to Japan’s Ayako Suzuki. The Dane started out best and she was ahead with 12-4 during the first set, but Suzuki fought back and won the set 24-22. The Japanese won a close second set with 21-17 as well. However, the game and the World Championship indicate that Denmark has a promising card at hand, when badminton gets its debut at the 2020 Paralympics.

The winner of the Pressalit Keep Living Award will be announced next week.